Weekend Box Office: ‘Fifty Shades Freed’ Takes the Top Spot

Fifty Shades Freed will be the number one movie of the weekend at the box office by the end of today, as estimates have it coming in at around $38.8 million. That’s down some $7 million or so from Fifty Shades Darker‘s opening weekend and over $45 million less than Fifty Shades of Grey‘s opening gross. Between this and the similar deterioration of returns on the Maze Runner and Divergent series, one would think that studios might get the hint that trilogies only bring in the big bucks in the MCU at this point, at least domestically. Like so much of 2017’s big-studio trash, Fifty Shades Freed made over double its domestic gross globally, already climbing to over $136 million in total. That covers the $55 million spent on producing the movie and domestic marketing costs, but we’ll likely know just how much was spent on marketing and releasing this movie overseas. As such, it’s becoming harder to tell just what constitutes a box office bombs nowadays.

Image via Sony Pictures

The same does not go for Peter Rabbit, which will come in second this weekend with $25 million and has yet to be released in foreign markets. Clint Eastwood‘s thoughtlessly maligned The 15:17 to Paris was released in limited foreign markets but only made $5.3 million against its domestic take of $12.6 million, placing it in third for the weekend. These are not big numbers and I would blame the largely indifferent reception to both largely on the marketing but it’s good to see three new releases lead the box office rankings for the first time in 2018, after Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle dominated much of the first quarter thus far.

Jumanji is still bringing in audiences too. The Jake Kasdan-helmed adventure-comedy brought in $9.8 million while another sleeper, The Greatest Showman, rounds out the top five with $6.4 million. Even with Black Panther coming out next weekend, it looks likely that the P.T. Barnum musical will break $150 million domestically, though the arrival of the Marvel epic will likely spell doom for the likes of Eastwood’s film. Fifty Shades Freed and Peter Rabbit may survive the arrival of Ryan Coogler‘s excellent third feature, but this weekend was their only real chance to make their money, especially with Annihilation hitting screens the weekend after Black Panther. Indeed, next weekend is when the 2018 box office competition really kicks into high gear. Hold onto your butts.

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